Jets merchandise selling out in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG — The buzz over the new Winnipeg Jets logo continued Saturday and the team put a little fuel on the fire by rolling out forward Eric Fehr to sign autographs at its downtown merchandise store.

The Jets unveiled their new designs late Friday. The primary mark is a silhouette on top of a red maple leaf enclosed with a navy blue and thin-silver circle which is notched on the inside at true north. It’s a tribute to the Royal Canadian Air Force.

A limited amount and selection of team-crested gear was available starting late Friday and several other local sports retail items joined the sales frenzy on Saturday.

Jets director of communications Scott Brown said Saturday that the Jets Gear store at the MTS Centre sold all 1,900 hats it had brought in. By mid-day Saturday, the team had processed more than 1,200 on-site transactions and expected to be sold out of all the rest of the nearly $200,000 of stock before the end of the day.

The team said earlier that the store would also be open Sunday, but changed that plan and said the store would remain closed because it anticipated having no stock to sell.

“We hope to have more in by Monday and to continue on with sales into next week,” Brown said.

Other city retailers had some stock but similarly, not a great variety beyond T-shirts and hats and some had stock later Saturday.

Most outlets were expecting more stock and more items in the coming week, though the team’s new jerseys won’t be revealed until September.

Fehr, 25, has been recovering from off-season shoulder surgery. He was acquired from the Washington Capitals in a trade earlier this month and said he was thrilled to be part of the weekend craze over the new Jets logos.

“I think this is great,” the Winkler, Man., native said Saturday at the MTS Centre. “I think Canadians are proud of the military and it’s great to represent them on our logo.

“I really didn’t know what to expect so I’m not really surprised. I think it’s a great look and I’m really excited to wear it.”

Inside the merchandise store, where fans were picking over T-shirt sizes and colours, Fehr said the buzz has not surprised him.

“This is great,” he smiled. “It’s definitely what we expected. The fans here are very passionate and we’ve seen that throughout the years. I think that’s just going to get stronger with an NHL team in the city.”

Brown said that the Jets and True North have once again been impressed by fans’ passion for the new logos. Lineups at the downtown store were long on Friday, and customers were lined up again before its Saturday morning opening.

“The reaction of the fans to the opening of the store and the logo is a little like everything else that’s happened,” Brown said. “We’re a little surprised but we kind of knew it would be big, just like the name, like everything else. To see the lineups going down the street yesterday, well, we had to cut the lineup off yesterday because we knew a lot of people who were in line weren’t going to get in before the store close.

“Now to see the lineup again today well down Hargrave Street, that was a little surprising. It just goes to the passion a lot of these fans have. You can’t say enough about them.”

Brown said that the team has received much positive feedback about Friday’s announcement.

“Overall things have been very positive,” he said. “You have your typical lukewarm response to it at first but I think people, when they spend some time looking at it and letting it grow on them, the response has been very positive.

“And then listening to Mr. Chipman [Jets governor Mark] talking [Friday] night about the background to the logo, we’ve had a very positive response to that story.”